Black Friday is becoming a big deal in Canada, with retailers pulling out the stops to keep Canadians from cross-border shopping.

Customers shop at a Walmart store in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles November 26, 2013. This year, Black Friday starts earlier than ever, with some retailers, including Wal-Mart, opening early on Thanksgiving evening. About 140 million people were expected to shop over the four-day weekend, according to the National Retail Federation.
REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian

After the success of
Black Friday
2012 in Canada, retailers have upped the ante, with more stores offering more bargains and opening longer hours to keep shoppers close to home again this year.

Canadian Tire is advertising a Kitchenaid stand mixer in assorted colours (450W motor, 5-qt stainless steel bowl) for $289.99, after a mail-in rebate, and a Stanley FatMax 229-piece socket set for $99.99.

Target is selling a pink Easy-Bake Oven for $30 and a 39” Magnavox 60 Hz 1080 p LED HDTV for $199.99.

Walmart is advertising a 32” LED TV for $168 — guaranteed in stock — and Disney princess or Barbie dolls for $5 each.

Malls across Canada are opening early and staying open late to accommodate shoppers who don’t take the day off, as people do in the U.S. on the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, which is on Nov. 28th this year.

According to a recent BMO report, nearly half of Canadian consumers (47 per cent) are planning to shop this Black Friday, up 15 per cent over 2012.

This approaches Boxing Day’s popularity – 59 per cent are planning to shop on Dec. 26 this year, down from 62 per cent in 2012.

Those planning to make purchases on Black Friday expect to spend an average of $292, and are twice as likely to be buying for others, rather than themselves, according to the data from BMO, which is mirrored by other research.

“We know that 39 per cent of Canadians believe Black Friday offers better deals than Boxing Day. Boxing Day used to be the big shopping day. Now it’s moved earlier, which is good for Canadians because it’s before Christmas,” said Christy Rabil, spokesperson for Retailmenot.ca.

She said the data also shows that Canadians do less shopping in the U.S. now that cyberdeals have come to Canada.

And traffic in the
Cadillac Fairview malls
that participated in last year’s Black Friday was up 22 per cent over the previous year.

But according to a 2013 survey by UPS Canada, the number of Canadians who plan on purchasing items online from U.S. retailers on the Thanksgiving weekend has nearly doubled over the last three years, from 13 per cent in 2011 to 24 per cent in 2013.

The number of Canadians who plan to cross-border shop has more than doubled, according to the same data, from six per cent in 2011 to 14 per cent in 2013.

This year, the incentives for staying home seem stronger, especially in light of the slipping value of the Canadian dollar, which is the single biggest factor affecting cross-border shopping, according to BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic

Other factors, including higher duty-free limits and the efforts being made by Canadian retailers to keep shoppers at home, are more difficult to single out.

“I suspect it’s having some impact at the margin to keep Canadians home,” says Kavcic, on the efforts by
Canadian retailers
.

The Canadian dollar peaked in July, 2011 at $1.05 U.S. Same-day car trips to the U.S. by Canadians – an indicator of cross-border shopping – hit a high of 2.8-million in February 2012.

Cross-border shopping remains at the highest levels since the late 1990s – there were 2.7-million same-day car trips to the U.S. by Canadians in September – but the growth seems to have leveled off, says Kavcic.

The Canadian dollar is currently trading at about five cents below parity with the U.S. dollar.

According to Kersi Antia, associate professor of marketing at Ivey Business School, it’s too early to claim victory over U.S. retailers south of the border.

“I think the value proposition is not so strong as to stop someone from going down south. My guess is American retailers can expect more than last year because the Canadian public is getting primed to shop on Black Friday,” said Antia.

In Buffalo, the Millenium Hotel by the Walden Galleria mall is booked solid, at $99.99 for a room with a king-sized bed.

“In addition to the shoppers, it’s a big family time, there’s a lot of people inbound coming to visit family,” said Russ Papia, director of sales and marketing for the hotel.

The Walden Galleria will be open from midnight to 11 p.m. on Black Friday.

Hilda Andrade, 53, an administrative assistant in Toronto, is among the Canadians who have no interest in shopping in the U.S. on Black Friday.

“By the time one gets in their vehicle, lines up to cross the border, puts up with crazies looking for their sales and then once again line up, cross the border, lie to border agent and maybe even drive in a blizzard? No thanks,
I’ll shop Canadian
,” she told the Star.

But Sébastien Dorélas, 29, is planning a visit to Chicago to stay with family and friends on Thanksgiving and do some shopping at suburban malls in nearby Wisconsin, where the state sales tax is lower.

“It will be my first time so I don’t really know what to expect,” he said.

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